Brockton reaches sweeping deal with unions on health insurance

City officials have reached a deal with Brockton’s 17 employee unions on a sweeping four-year health care deal. Brockton will save an estimated $28 million over the deal, which requires City Council approval to adopt four years of coalition bargaining with the unions.

Brockton will save an estimated $28 million over the life of the deal, which requires City Council approval to adopt four years of coalition bargaining with the unions.

The council is set to discuss the agreement at a special meeting scheduled for Monday.

“I’m just very happy that we have been able to come to a resolution and that everybody worked so hard on this on both sides of the table,” Balzotti said in an interview Thursday.

The deal provides cost certainty on health insurance payments covering city employees and retirees. Brockton, which self insures, budgeted $49.8 million for 2012-2013 for health insurance – about 17 percent of the city’s general fund. The percentage has increased from 11 percent of the city’s budget in 2001-2002.

“It’s going to be a tremendous help in establishing budgets for the next several years,” Balzotti said.

Coalition bargaining allows the unions to bargain for health insurance plans collectively as a single committee.

The memorandum of understanding signed between the city and the unions allows coalition bargaining through the life of the deal, which expires June 30, 2017.

The plan, which splits contributions to 75 percent by the city and 25 percent by employees and retirees, imposes a number of higher co-payments for medical services to reduce costs. In June, Brockton covered 603 subscribers from the city government and 1,757 subscribers from the city’s schools.

The plan also puts the city’s Medicare supplement coverage for retirees out to collective bidding, which helped reap $1.2 million in savings for 2013. About $300,000 of the savings will go back to retirees, who will still have Blue Cross Blue Shield. The city had about 2,588 retiree subscribers receiving coverage as of June.

“Retirees are going to see a real benefit,” said John Condon, the city’s chief financial officer. “So will the city.”

It does not include deductibles, but does include tiering of hospitals. The plan starts Jan. 1 for retirees and July 1, 2013, for employees.

Balzotti expects the plan to save $21 million for the city, which she said could be used toward solving outstanding union contracts and saving city jobs moving forward.

“I’m certain that we would like to resolve a lot of the outstanding contracts that we have,” Balzotti said.

The City Council in February rejected moving all of the city’s employees into the state-run health care insurance program or a similarly priced plan, a move that would have saved the city an estimated $4.6 million in 2012-2013. The move also would have meant higher out-of-pocket costs for city workers and retirees.

Page 2 of 2 -
At the time, city councilors and union leaders alike said they would negotiate cost savings through the collective bargaining process instead.

The city’s deal will save $6.7 million in the first year.

City Councilor-at-large Jass Stewart said the deal both preserves collective bargaining and protects the interests of taxpayers.

“The City Council put its political reputation on the line so I think that added a lot of pressure to the process,” Stewart said.

Lt. Donald Mills, president of the Brockton Police Supervisors Association, said the city councilors have been vindicated by the deal.

“I feel that every city councilor can hold their head high and say, ‘We made the right decision,’” Mills said.

Ward 2 City Councilor Thomas Monahan said he is satisfied that the unions backed up their promise to find savings.

“They told us what they’re willing to do,” Monahan said. “I feel good that they did do it.”

Monahan said he hopes some of the savings from the plan could be used to help non-union employees who are paying high rates for insurance.

City Councilor-at-large Thomas Brophy said he hadn’t seen the details of the plan but wants to be able to compare the new deal with savings that could be achieved adopting the state’s municipal health insurance finance law.

“I’m very hopeful that we have reached a compromise that achieves significant savings for the city and at the same time provides more than adequate health benefits for our employees,” Brophy said.